Meta’s Glitch: Why Your Photography Email List is Your ONLY Safe Haven

Did you hear how Meta recently wrongfully suspended thousands of Facebook groups, potentially destroying livelihoods with no readily available support to help them reinstate their groups?

Because, surprise surprise, Meta does NOT have a customer service department.

This incident is a stark reminder that while social media can be a powerful tool for business, it’s a platform we don’t own.

Your business, your audience, and your ability to connect with them can disappear overnight at the whim of an algorithm or a technical error or a new law.

A reminder that this is exactly why building your email list isn’t just a good idea; it’s essential!

I’ve always used social media as a vehicle to bring leads into my email list, my world.

And the easiest way to do this is by using a lead magnet.🧲

A lead magnet is a freebie that you offer to potential clients in exchange for their contact information, typically their name and email address.

Though I also collect phone numbers for text campaigns because studies have shown that roughly 95% of texts get read while roughly only 25% of emails get opened. So if you can afford both, do both.

The key to a successful lead magnet is to provide something that can solve your clients’ biggest pain point (their biggest problem) as related to your services.

A lead magnet can be a guide, a checklist ✅ or even a video.

For example, if you shoot weddings, something like a “Wedding Photography Planning Guide” might be useful for your clients.

One of my Headshot Academy™ (⇐get on the wait list) students just created a Wardrobe Guide for her lead magnet.

NOW THIS PART IS IMPORTANT‼️

Once you create your lead magnet, make sure you have a dedicated landing page to that lead magnet on your website or you won’t be able to link to it directly.

❌ You can’t send prospects to your website under the guise of giving them a lead magnet and expect them to find it embedded on your site somewhere.

Once you create that landing page, link to it on your social media profiles.

Of course that’s not enough.👇

You’ll also need to start including it as a call to action on your posts. A lead magnet isn’t going to get you leads unless your audience knows about it– so keep telling them about it and ask them to download it.

Here’s an example post to see how it’s done.

By downloading your lead magnet and willingly providing their email address to you, these “leads” become a part of your community.

That’s when the nurturing begins– with email campaigns.

By consistently emailing your prospects, you have a direct line of communication with them.

Social media can disappear at any moment. Remember Vine? Remember when Facebook went down for a day? Remember when TikTok was under threat?

The recent Meta suspensions are the latest, most urgent example of why you can’t build your entire business on rented land.

Always use social media to turn followers into leads… on your list.